Swedish Junior Hockey

Daniel Franck, CEO of Sportway, the developer of svenskhockey.tv or Swedish Hockey TV that all teams in Sweden uses to watch games at the U12 through juniors.

Daniel talks about the partnership with Swedish Hockey Federation and the penetration of participants across the footprint of rinks in Sweden and how this partnership has been crucial in getting traction with the technology.

Sportway has similar partnership in Finland, Norway and Denmark and is in the middle of installing 2,000 systems in indoor handball facilities in Norway.  

We talk about the differences between systems in the US and how the technology often is thought to have an actual camera person and not artificial intelligence that handles the camera tracking.

Next stop US and Canada?  Perhaps after we air this episode.

Enjoy!

Ludwig grew up playing youth hockey in Huddinge, a suburb of Stockholm and at the age 13 change to powerhouse Djurgarden until U16 when he and teammates and current SHL and NHL stars such as Timashow, Kempe, Kyllington, Lundin and Englund won the U16 National Championship.  He then accepted the opportunity to go to academy (gymnasium) at the NIU level and play at BIK Karlskoga and received his degree as an electrician in 3 years.  He moved back home to Stockholm after graduation and played Division 2 semi professionally for teams such as Varmdo, Transund, Handinge and Gota/Traneberg.  

We discussed how one day a call came from EV Zug in the Swiss league for him to have the opportunity to try out and he got on a plane and took that opportunity.  Even though he wasn't selected as one of the few import positions, it was a valuable experience and something he will never forget.

Because of the Covid shut downs, he eventually took the opportunity as a 26 year old player to make the change to be a coach.  He accepted a position for the J20 Region team in Tyreso and this year as first year head coach for newly advanced Haninge in J20 Region East.

This episode focuses on Ludwig's journey and the ability to leverage his own experiences as a player and the opportunity to align mentally with the young players he is leading in their goals on the ice and in life.

Ludvig Steenberg was not selected for the Stockholm TV puck tournament and did not get a chance to play at the NIU Gymnasium in Hockey but worked hard and took his own path to continue to play. 

After a year at SDE J18 Elite and 2 years in gymnasium (Swedish High School) he signed up to go play prep hockey at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, NY an.  d did his senior and a post grad year there before graduating.  His goal was to play college hockey in the US and joined the Connecticut Oilers in the EHL and won a EHL championship with a very good team there.  At a showcase during the season he was offered the spot on the Plymouth State University in the NCAA DIII league and he realized his goals and dreams are coming true.  He again charted his won path and declared his own major and graduated in 4 years with a degree in interdisciplinary studies and an experience of a lifetime.  One of his teammates was from Norway and he went to play in the Norwegian Fjordkraft Legaen as a first year pro.  Covid had a major impact of forcing some difficult decision and he decided after 2 years to move back home to Stockholm and got into coaching his first year in Sollentuna as he played for their Div. 1 team and took the position as the U16 head coach and assistant for the J18 team.  This year, Ludvig is testing out all the years of hockey playing and learning from his past coaches and is the new head coach for Lidingo Vikings in J18 Region (elit) in Region East of Swedish Juniors.  He is also the GM and oversees the developmental programs from U9 to J18.

 

We hope you enjoy following Ludvig's journey and learn details and experiences from both Swedish and US hockey programs.

Alec Roberson, a hockey player, fan and writer for Beyond The Glass Hockey is the guest of today's episode of the Swedish Jr Hockey Podcast.  

Alec grew up in NC and found hockey later in his youth and fell in love with the game.  During his undergrad at UNC WIlmington he played with the club team and turned heads during Friday lunch pick ups at the Greensboro Ice House during his law school days at Wake Forest University.  

Alec has a passion for educating and informing the reader of details of specific areas of hockey.  Prom his days working as a private practice attorney, his skillsets in details and breaking down processes, how things work in the inner circles of hockey, he challenges the reader and takes the complicated and makes it understandable to the public.  Alee has a special interest when it comes to the health and wellness of hockey players and their families and in this episode we discuss some of this and I challenge him to dig further into the good and bad parts of junior hockey

Tomi Stahlhammar, currently the head coach of Jokerit U16 youth hockey team in Helsinki, Finland.  Tomi started out his career in Espoo, Finland and enjoyed a strong youth to junior career and had several seasons in the finish junior national team before moving with his family to the US and a year with Cedar Rapids in the USHL.  Tomi shares his journey and how his experience has groomed him for a future as a young coach in the finish juniors.

Kari Ellsworth, part owner of the NAHL Anchorage Wolverines and executive director of the new hockey documentary Year One.

Year One follows the inaugural season of the Anchorage Wolverines in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) following the trend of sports documentaries such as Last Chance U on Amazon Prime and Cheer on Netflix.  For the Swedish audience, this is the American version of Rinkside or Eagles and Beartown.

Kari explains the origin for the idea of creating the documentary, her background as a sports journalist in Anchorage and how she herself was drawn into the lives of the players and their amazing season in 21-22.

Although the movie/series is currently in post production with a release date approx 6 months, you can find the trailer at www.yearonefilms.com or on YouTube and Facebook.  You can also follow Kari Ellsworth on Twitter @Karibusto

Ted Suikhonen grew up in Duluth, MN, USA and won a national high school championship and the following year the Kelly Cup with USHL's Lincoln Stars in their inaugural season.  He moved on to the D1 program at University of Alaska – Anchorage and figured the trajectory would follow.  After 2.5 years in Alaska, against the advice of his parents, he left to go pro in Europe once the phone did not ring at the pro level in the US.  As a young hockey player at a variety of countries such as Netherlands, Italy, Sweden.  A second major knee injury finally ended his playing career and moved back to the US to get into coaching at the High School level in Alaska. Ted has since spent the last 18 years in a variety of coaching positions in the US, Norway, Sweden.  Prior to this year, Ted worked as Direct or of Player Development for the M20 in the Russian Junior League for HC Lokomotiv and this year moved in a similar position with EVZ Zug in the Swiss League.

In this episode we not only talk about his journey and his experience but also how his player career has shaped and molded him as a coach.  How the first few years were mainly about pressing the throttle with practices and games but in later years, after finishing his degree and later getting into the neuroscience of learning has put him on the map as one of the premier skills and player development coaches in Europe.

You can find details and examples of his beliefs, techniques and videos by following him on Twitter @tedsuihkonen77 and on IG @suihkonen.77.   Here you can not only find great video content but also the philosophy behind WHAT, HOW and most importantly the WHY specific things are done.

We hope you enjoy this episode of the Swedish Junior Hockey Podcast.  If you like what you hear, please share it with your friends and subscribe as a regular listener on your choice of podcast player.

 Feel free to contact us by sending a DM on Twitter @SwedishJrHockey, IG @swedishjuniorhockey and on FB Swedish Junior Hockey

Tommy Salo is someone that needs very little introduction.  From growing up in a small torn of Surahammar and his path from playing with older players as a youth hockey athlete and how his success drove his focus at age 15 to go to hockey gymnasium in Vasteras.  Tommy spend over a decade as a international team goalie in both juniors and Sweden's Olympic and world cup teams.  One of the most iconic goaltenders in Swedish history with an Olympic and World Championship gold medals.

We talk about his rapid rise in the ranks and how he got a call ion a hotel room telephone during vacation in Florida that he was drafted to the Islanders.

 

We also talk about his views on junior hockey players and specific players such as Filip Forsberg as a GM and how Sweden's system has a proven history of producing top level players in the world.

Joel Kinnander from Olofstroms IK, 2003 and starting his final year of Swedish Juniors in J20 Elite.  In this episode we discuss his journey from being a late starter to a strong finisher, his big frame and how it suits his dream of playing juniors and D1 college in the US or Canada and how his goals drive his strategy for improvements but also how to market himself and get noticed by teams from across the Atlantic.